Advice for self-study for work

DRAFT

Despite there being tens of magic methods that promise to teach you English in 6 weeks or 6 months for that matter, I regret to say that this is just very unrealistic. That’s why we’ve compiled some tips and recommendations to help you make the most of your self-study, in a realistic way, provided you are self-driven, motivated and disciplined. Expect no miracles but reward guaranteed!

I am sure you’ve heard and seen all over the notion that in order to master anything, you need around 10,000 hours of doing it. For some people it’ll be more and for other a bit less, but that’s seems to be a fairly accurate number, according to experts. That means no quick methods. However, this also depends on your goals. When it comes to learning English, let’s first think a couple of things through:

-       Do you want to be accurate and fluent? Accurate meaning: no or very few grammar mistakes and fluent meaning that you aim at making yourself understood despite grammar mistakes

-       Will you be communicating with native speakers who are not used to speaking to non-native speakers, to native speakers who usually deal with non-native speakers, or to non-native speakers of various levels of command of command of the language?

-        How much of my time I am willing to spend exposed to English, with an active approach to learning out of this exposure? Watching a film in English for the sake of learning English won’t be very productive unless you are active in your learning (I’ll expand on this later)

-       How different is your mother tongue from English? What bad habits you have when it comes to communicating in English? – it’s often important to unlearn what you think you know and break this habit by bombarding the brain with the right expression / grammar structure / whatever you want to learn/...

-       What do I want to focus on: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, understanding native speakers of different nationalities?

-        

It’s never been easier to learn than now. With opportunities to spend time in countries where the target language is spoken, with mobile learning (apps, the ubiquitous availability of Wi-Fi, photo cameras to take photos of material and sheets and handouts, free online courses, free language exchanges online, online magazines, radios in English online and a longer list of options). Consequently, provided you’re motivated and disciplined, learning is at the palm of your hand and just one or two clicks away.

The way I interpret language learning is holistic. That means that ideally, when you’re learning a new vocabulary item, a new structure, it’s good to learn it as a whole, as a chunk and focus on pronunciation, connecting the words if they have to be connected, learning the words it usually is combined with. Like this, you’ll be easier to understand and you’ll understand others far more easily, you’ll be more efficient and gain fluency. English is complex in ways that you may never have been shown or told. That shouldn’t be a problem or put you off studying it, however, it’s good to be aware of that.  Yet again, this depends on your mother tongue in many ways and how you’ve learned whatever English you know.

The problem for many is that nowadays most people have learned a bit of English, most can perform at work with varying levels of fluency or accuracy but if you really want to improve and ... that’s hard work, when you can already communicate, ...

Failure to see that you learn a language not only to speak but also to be spoken, to understand others is crucial, too. It’s a two way thing. Don’t just set your goals like : I want to speak better English. Speaking is just one area you want to learn. To speak better English, we need to know what exactly you’ll be speaking about, you need vocabulary, this vocabulary maybe associated to a certain grammar and register, etc.  Learning a foreign language involves speaking and being spoken, so understanding and being understood. Also, be specific and realistic and invest time in learning the basics well as this will make it easier for you to pick up a bit more complex grammar. It’s key to understand the have as an auxiliary verb for example, to succeed at higher levels.

. Tip: watch videos giving you advice on how to learn and study. They’ll help you understand why it’s helpful to follow their advice

My favourites are:

Some people focus their teaching in themes, as it has always been done, the way I see it this method has pros and cons, ..experiment and find a way that resonates with you, that you identify that you learn the best..and by this I don’t mean identifying if you are visual, kinaestheic or audio learner, it’s beyond this. 

Repetition is key, go over exercises, videos, podcasts, a few times. You’re learning English, learning is exposure, you learn a word when you’ve seen it a meaningful, relevant context a number of times. Meaningful, relavant to you. You’re brain is lazy, help it learn by exposing yourself to what you want to learn. 

Get into the habit of using your resources actively, that is, if you’re at a PC, by default, open your howjsay (I’ll explain this later) google translate or equivalent and wordreference or any other online dictionary of your choice. Use their pronunciation icon, type and listen to words and expressions.  

Podcasts

Radios

Video channels on youtube

Pronunciation and fluency

Reading newspapers, watching short videos,

Youtube speed and subtitles, ted talks speed and subtitles,

Tips for learning vocabulary: https://edition.englishclub.com/articles/7-tips-for-learning-english-vocabulary/

+ videos

Recommended apps vary from website to website, from teacher to teacher so here is a list but do find out what you like best, go and explore itunes and google store to find others you might like. Some are for Android only, other of iOS, some are free others are not,... the list here if for free ones.  Apps: https://edition.englishclub.com/articles/top-10-apps-for-learning-english/

Common needs I have identified:

Improving email writing style

Insisting on present perfect for and since

lo único que puedo recomendarte para aprender rápido es motivación para estudiar, (usa métodos tradicionales con nuevos (apps, videos, podcasts, etc - experimenta hasta encontrar uno o varios métodos que te gusten) - y disciplina y que estés abierta a replantearte ideas / significados etc. Submérgete en la lengua que quieras aprender. Encuentra tu manera de aprender.
Pero no hay nada como motivación real (y que de te la creas tu des de dentro de tus entrañas - ya sea realmente querer x trabajo, querer ganar más dinero, viaje, necesitar comunicarte con una persona en tu vida)  y disciplina.